Trial of the Major War Criminals before International Military Tribunal ...

(2) Students' Massacres.
(a) The Funeral of the Student OPLETAL.
On October 28th, 1939, the people of Prague demonstrated their
loyalty to the Republic by observing the day as a national holiday
just as had been done for the previous 20 years. The German police,
personally assisted by K.H. FRANK, used all sorts of violence to
suppress the demonstration. Among the many arrested was Jan
OPLETAL, a 24-year old student of the Faculty of Medicine at the
Charles University, who later died of his wounds which he had
received at the hands of the Gestapo.
The University students were prohibited from attending OPLE-
TAL's funeral on November 15th, but they assembled in front of
the church, and as the coffin was borne out they shouted various
keywords. Afterwards a. crowd of students assembled on the Old
Town Square. Weapons were used against the defenceless students.
Turbulence arose and instigated by special German formations
spread throughout the town.
(b) The German Assault.
On the following day, November 16th, Reich Protector NEU­
RATH and State Secretary FRANK left *for Berlin by aeroplane and
had a meeting with the raging HITLER. In the course of the same
day strong detachments of SA and SS reinforced by motorised
regiments with full equipment, left Berlin for Prague.
In the night of November 16th/17th, German armed military
formations made an assault upon the students in the character
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of a gangster's raid. They forced an entry into the buildings by
sho~ting the porter and seized the students while they were still
in their night attire in the dormitories. Many young men were
killed, others brutally beaten and ill-treated, then they were taken
to the Air Force barracks at Ruzyii. There, the students were
subjected to sadistic tortures.
(c) Murder and Deportations.
In the raided colleges 14 students were killed by shots. At Ruzyii,
on the morning of November 17th, 1939, a whole number of student
officials and 9 members of the Committee of the Federation of
~zechoslovak Students in Bohemia were executed by shooting. Bern-
hard VOSS, SS. Brigadefuehrer, interrogated by Col.Dr.B.ECER on
June 21st, 1945, at Wiesbaden stated that at the time of the students'